Day 4534

It's a little late, but the rain has finally arrived. I spent most of the day trying to avoid getting wet but I guess you can't avoid it forever. I did manage to get my long walk finished before the storms started and Dawn got her walk as well. Now we wait for the roof to start leaking. We've got quite a downpour right now and the pumps on the roof aren't working. It's not a good combination.

Other than waiting for the rain to start, it was a pretty slow day. I discovered that the shower drain was clogged when I was taking a shower today. I wish I'd discovered this before I was actually in the shower and already wet. I had to get dressed so I could go outside and get my tools to snake out the drain before I could continue. Water is not my friend. Between running toilets, slow drains, and leaking roofs, I've had just about all the water problems I can handle.

Dawn must have know that the weather was about to change because she refused to take a sunrise walk. It wasn't raining, but the ground was wet. That's all it takes with her. Luckily, Janet was able to give her a walk in the afternoon before the next round of storms hit. I think Dawn is much better at forecasting the weather than the apps on my phone. Yesterday they said the rain would start last night and continue all day today. The forecast was only off by 12 hours.

I wasn't feeling lucky today, so I postponed updating the star tracker app on my phone. It was tempting because there wasn't much else to do today, but I kept remembering that the last time I updated this app was when all my camera connection problems started. One of these days I'm going to have to deal with this. My phone keeps wanting to update apps automatically when they become available. I've had to disable this function and update apps manually, being careful to avoid the Benro app.

I wish I could get the pumps to work without going up on the roof. Sometimes when the extension cords to the pumps are under water for too long they short out and throw a circuit breaker. Other times, leaves and dirt clog the pumps and need to be cleaned out. Unfortunately, you never know that something is wrong until after it starts raining. Oh, well. It is what is is. I'd better go get the buckets ready. It will be a miracle if we don't get a leak tonight.

My problems always seem so minor whenever I turn on the news. I guess that's why I don't like listening to the news anymore. I often feel like I am witnessing the total collapse of society. If you are even a casual student of history you realize that all civilizations come to an end at some point. We've had a good run, but we may be nearing the end of ours. I wonder what the next Middle Ages will be like? Probably a bit like BladeRunner. I may be wrong but I keep thinking that globalization is behind many of the problems we are seeing today. Just because something is too big to fail doesn't prevent failure. It almost guarantees it. The world would be a better place if there were lots of tiny little powerless civilizations, all completely independent of each other. If one fails or goes haywire, the rest just continue on. Of course this wouldn't work in a world filled with jet planes and satellite phones. It wouldn't work if two tiny civilizations decided to join forces and take over a third tiny civilization either. Hey, I've got no answers. Maybe we just need a lot fewer people.

I hope this rain stops soon. I know that rain is a lot better than drought and wildfires, but water still makes me nervous.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2272

I think I'm going to have to call the plumber again. In one end of the house the kitchen sink drains slowly. In the other end of the house, the shower drains equally slowly. This probably means that the entire waste water line needs to be snaked out. I'm always nervous about doing this because the cast iron pipes are fifty years old and the rotating snake that is used to clear debris can also damage the pipes. After our last plumbing disaster, I don't want any more plumbing problems under the slab.

I guess I'm tired of problems in general. I'm forgetting things that I always used to remember. My business is slowing down. The house is falling apart. The dogs have become very high maintenance companions. My own body no longer cooperates with me. It's tiring. I go to bed tired and I wake up tired the next morning. The golden years are a myth. Maybe the notion of a comfortable, carefree retirement has always been a myth for most people. My parents certainly didn't have an easy time of things as they got older.

I certainly don't expect a politician to fix things. When I listen to all the promises from the current crop of candidates, they just sound pathetic. Don't these folks realize that the country has essentially become ungovernable? We have allowed ourselves to become so polarized and divided that we are just a bunch of tribes pretending to be a unified country. People's loyalties are to their tribe these days, not to the country as a whole. I'm not sure this can be fixed. Whoever wins the upcoming election will face a large and vocal group of people on the other side trying to block everything they do. My tribe will probably end up just being the other old people. I'll vote for anyone who promises to strengthen Medicare and Social Security and cut my taxes to zero. Lofty speeches about making the country better for our children will go in one ear and out the other because I don't have any children. I'm sure young people with children will think differently.

Dot had a few accidents in the house today. These accidents have become so frequent that cleaning up poop has become just like dusting or vacuuming. I can't even remember any more whether we're having an accident free day or not. It just seems like the washing machine is going constantly. I guess it's a good thing that I'm getting more efficient at cleaning Dot up and changing the rugs and bedding. Dot can't help her incontinence, so there's no point in getting upset about it. 

All in all, it was just a normal Saturday. The dogs got taken care of. I went out and got some groceries. I did a little cleaning and wasted too much time looking at Facebook. I was mildly interested in tonight's election results, but only mildly. Tomorrow, I'll probably go to the gym. I've run out of excuses for avoiding the place.

Rory is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2163

The day sure ended differently than it began. We were hoping things would dry off after an all night rain, but the weather wouldn't cooperate. Reluctantly, we took the dogs out in the rain and by the time they both did their business, everybody was soaked. I'm much more aware of humidity now. A simple walk in the rain raised the relative humidity in the house by 10%. Wet clothes, wet dogs, and a lot of open doors were all it took to upset the balance. Taking showers raised the humidity as well. Just about everything raised the humidity. When the skies cleared after lunch, the humidity went down again. I'm at the mercy of the weather.

My HVAC contractor said he'd come out and see if there was a way to install a whole house dehumidifier that worked in conjunction with the furnace and air conditioner. He told me that a dehumidifier was just a band-aid though and that something was fundamentally wrong with my house. I suspect he's right. "Everyone else says their house is too dry in the Winter," he told me. "You're the first person who wants it even drier." I think when you've got an entire house constructed of porous brick, it's kind of like having a moisture sponge. The bricks absorb moisture and then radiate it back into the house. Having tons of single pane glass probably doesn't help either. When I went to Home Depot to look for portable dehumidifiers, they didn't even stock any. "We mostly sell those up North," said a guy in an orange apron. "People put them in their basements." Yup. That explains it. The house has always felt like we were living in a basement.

I must be sleeping better now, because I didn't even hear all the wind and rain last night. There must have been high winds, because there was a big branch in the back yard when I woke up. Maybe if these dead branches keep falling off our Oak trees in windstorms, I won't have to hire the tree trimmers this year. I hauled the big limb out to the curb and added it to my pile of stuff that is still waiting for bulky trash pickup. Later in the day, I saw on Facebook that a tornado had passed through the area last night. You could have fooled me.

Now that my plumbing problems have been largely resolved, I'm starting to get caught up on work.  Today I updated a few websites and did some routine bookkeeping. It seemed like I spent a lot of time cleaning mud off the dogs paws, but that's just what we do in the Winter. Other than my strange new obsession with the humidity, it was a completely normal day.

I wish I didn't have to waste so much time dealing with water problems. I spent about fifteen minutes clearing a slow shower drain before I took my shower this morning. This afternoon, I spent another forty-five minutes getting the water from last night's rain off the roof. These things have become so normal that I don't even think about them anymore.

I'll probably continue my search for a good portable dehumidifier tomorrow. If the weather remains clear, Dash will finally get the long walk he's been waiting for. I need to confirm our reservations for Thanksgiving dinner too. Thanksgiving will be here before you know it.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

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